Mark Anthony Neal

Mark Anthony Neal is James B. Duke Distinguished Professor of African & African American Studies, Professor of English, and Professor of Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at Duke University. He serves as Chair of Duke’s Academic Council and was formerly chair of the Department of African & African American Studies.

Neal is the author of six books including Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive (2022),  What the Music Said: Black Popular Music and Public Culture (1999), Soul Babies: Black Popular Culture and the Post-Soul Aesthetic (2002) and Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities (2013), and co-editor, with Murray Forman and Regina Bradley, of That’s The Joint!: The Hip-Hop Studies Reader(now in its third edition). His most recent book is Save a Seat for Me: Meditations on Black Masculinity and Fatherhood, released August 4, 2026 by Simon & Schuster. He is the founding host of the Award-winning video podcast Left of Black, produced in collaboration with the John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute at Duke.

Neal has been featured in several documentaries including PBS’s Hip-Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, Netflix’s The Two Killings of Sam Cooke, A&E’s Right to Offend: The Black Comedy Revolution, PBS’s Gospel (Hosted by Henry Louis Gates, Jr.),  Sly Lives (aka The Burden of Black Genius)(directed by Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson), We Want the Funk (directed by Stanley Nelson)  and even portrayed himself in an episode of the BET scripted drama, Being Mary Jane, which starred Gabrielle Union.

Neal is a member of the Delta Zeta Sigma Graduate Chapter (Durham, NC) of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc.

(Photo credit: Eric Barstow)

Bio Updated August 2026